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business Thursday 9 april 2020
Housing market chills, layoffs, US cos. dial up virus fight

The Associated Press formation of the Transpor-
undefined tation Security Administra-
The outbreak of the coro- tion, the number of passen-
navirus has dealt a shock to gers screened daily at U.S.
the global economy with airports dropped below
unprecedented speed. Fol- 100,000.
lowing are developments The figure recorded Tues-
Wednesday related to the day, 97,130, represents a
global economy, the work decline of more than 95%
place and the spread of compared with the same
the virus. day a year ago.
___________________ — Airbus is reducing pro-
PAYCHECKS STOP: Compa- duction by about a third.
nies are in survival mode, The company delivered
which means tens of thou- 122 planes in the first quar-
sands of people are los- ter, but 60 are undelivered.
ing weekly paychecks. It delivered 36 in March,
Governments are pushing down from 55 in February
billions of dollars into pro- as airlines deferred orders.
grams to stop the blood- MACRO DEVASTATION:
letting, but job cuts keep Despite national efforts to
coming. Big Ben's clock tower and the London Eye ferris wheel stand in the distance as the area around blunt the worst of the eco-
— Tesla furloughed most Royal Festival Hall is very quiet in London, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. nomic damage, a signifi-
factory workers and an- Associated Press. cant global contraction is
nounced pay cuts. Fur- a Mortgage Bankers Asso- HEAVY INDUSTRY: Manufac- livery of 2.25 million sets of increasingly likely.
loughed employees won't ciation survey Wednesday. turers have reconfigured protective gear in the next — Japan's economy is
be paid, but health ben- Purchase applications, factory floors to provide five weeks. The HHS has an headed for a 25% contrac-
efits will continue. The com- which hint at future activ- essential goods despite option to double that or- tion in the current quarter,
pany anticipates a return ity, slid 12% in a week, and the lack of a coordinated der. even with the government's
to work on May 4, accord- a whopping 33% from the response from Washington — The Burton snowboard fiscal aid package, Gold-
ing to an email from Valerie same week last year. It's far and clashes between Pres- company is donating man Sachs said Wednes-
Workman, head of HR for worse in regions where CO- ident Donald Trump and 500,000 respirator masks to day. The report said exports
North America. VID-19 is raging. Compared some of the nation's largest hospitals across the North- are expected to dive by
— Starbucks will provide with last year, purchase producers. east. 60% in the April-June peri-
direct grants to employ- applications tumbled 38% — The U.S. will buy 30,000 — Amazon is testing disin- od. The contraction for the
ees worldwide. The Seattle in Washington state and desperately needed ven- fectant fogging at ware- world's third largest econ-
roaster will provide $10 mil- 31.3% in New York. Califor- tilators from General Mo- houses. Amazon has been omy would be a record,
lion in grants for things like nia reported a 15.9% drop tors for $489.4 million. GM under pressure from work- since gross domestic prod-
housing, utilities, and fam- in applications. is producing the devices at ers to improve safety during uct began to be tracked in
ily funeral costs during the — The number of peo- cost. The ventilators will go the outbreak. 1955.
pandemic. ple paying rent in March into the Strategic National EMPTY SKIES: For the first — The virus outbreak will
BROKEN HOMES: There slipped 12%, according to Stockpile for distribution, time in well over a genera- cause a deep recession
were already early signs the National Multifamily HHS said. GM will deliver tion, skies are largely empty in Germany, shrinking the
of weakness in the hous- Housing Council. In it's first 6,132 ventilators by June. of planes. The number of economy by 4.2% this year,
ing market before the pan- review of the effects of the — FedEx and DuPont are people passing through leading German research
demic. New data shows a COVID-19 outbreak, the teaming up to get 450,000 U.S. airports is plumbing institutes said Wednesday
significant deterioration. group found 69% of house- protective suits to U.S. lows comparable only to in their twice-annual report.
— Mortgage applications holds had paid their rent by healthcare workers from a the days following the Sept. Economists predict a swift
nationwide dropped 17.9% April 5, compared with 81% plant in Vietnam this week. 11 attacks. rebound to growth of 5.8%
in one week, according to in the previous month. Federal officials expect de- — For the first time since the in 2021. q

Airbus cuts production by a third as

airlines struggle

LONDON (AP) — European lated to a near-total shut- view its output on a month-
planemaker Airbus said down of air travel. ly basis. "It is not unlikely
Wednesday it is reducing "We are adapting produc- that aviation will look dif-
production by about a third tion to the new reality of ferent after this COVID-19
as demand for aircraft and the airlines," Airbus CEO crisis," he said.
travel plummets due to the Guillaume Faury said. The company said it was
coronavirus pandemic. "We are all going through keeping tight control on its
The company said it deliv- an unprecedented situa- own costs and has not yet
ered 122 planes in the first tion and we want to do this applied for government
quarter, but 60 remain un- together as much as pos- support, but said it might
delivered. It delivered only sible." seek to tap European gov-
36 in March, down from Faury was unable to indi- ernment programs that
55 in February, as airlines cate how long the produc- help pay the salaries of
asked to suspend orders tion cuts would last, saying workers put on temporary An Airbus A330 of the French Air Force is on display at the Airport
while facing huge costs re- only that Airbus would re- leave.q of Hamburg, Germany, Tuesday, March 31, 2020.
Associated Press.